(a) Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to flat panel displays. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to a display device and a driving method thereof.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A general display device includes two display panels including a pixel electrode and a common electrode, and a liquid crystal layer having dielectric anisotropy interposed therebetween. The pixel electrodes are arranged in a matrix form and connected to switching elements, such as thin film transistors (TFTs), to sequentially receive data voltages for every row. The common electrodes are formed over the entire surface of the display panel to receive common voltages. The pixel electrode, the common electrode, and the liquid crystal display therebetween form a liquid crystal capacitor when viewed from a circuit, and the liquid crystal capacitor becomes a basic unit which forms a pixel together with the switching element connected thereto.
In such a display device, an electric field is generated in the liquid crystal layer by applying voltages to the two electrodes, and transmittance of light passing through the liquid crystal layer is controlled by controlling an intensity of the electric field, thereby producing a desired image. In this case, in order to prevent a degradation phenomenon generated by applying the electric field in one direction to the liquid crystal layer for a long time, a voltage polarity of a data signal for the common voltage is inverted for each frame, for each row, or for each pixel.
Liquid crystal molecules may be aligned to some degree in advance by performing pre-charging for a predetermined time before a normal data voltage is applied to the liquid crystal capacitor. In this case, even though normal data voltages having the same magnitude are applied to a plurality of capacitors existing in the same pixel row, when pre-charging amounts are different from each other, a difference in luminance occurs due to different charging amounts charged in the liquid crystal capacitor, and as a result, an image quality defect in which a flicker is recognized occurs.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.